The present invention pertains generally to the field of wireless communications, and more specifically to updating stored data within a wireless communication device.
The field of wireless communications has many applications including, e.g., cordless telephones, paging, cellular, wireless local loops, and satellite communication systems. A particularly important application is cellular telephone systems (also including Personal Communications Services (PCS) for mobile subscribers.
Wireless communication devices, such as cellular telephones, are widely used as a replacement for conventional telephone systems. Hereinafter the term cellular will be used to refer to any wireless communication device. In addition to functioning as a replacement for a conventional telephone, wireless communication devices offer the advantage of portability, thus enabling the user to establish a wireless communication link between virtually any two locations on Earth.
In addition to conventional voice communication, wireless communication devices also provide features such as voicemail, voice messaging, and automatic callback notification. Callback notification allows a caller to automatically transmit his telephone number to simplify the process of returning a call. For example, the user of a wireless telephone may place a call that is not received by the intended recipient. A message may be left for the intended recipient and include a xe2x80x9ccallback number,xe2x80x9d which corresponds to the caller""s mobile identification number. The message recipient may readily establish a communication link with the wireless communication device using the callback number.
Other features, such as three-way calling, are also readily implemented using the conventional communication device. The user of the wireless communication device may establish a first communication link by selecting a stored telephone number from a telephone book storage area within the wireless communication device. When the first communication link is established, the user establishes the second communication link by manually entering a second destination telephone number or by selecting a second destination telephone number from the telephone book storage area.
An additional group of features include directory services, such as a local personal phonebook stored on the communication device. Typical devices allow for the individual entry of user names and telephone numbers stored as a contact entry. The phonebook includes a number of such records. The device accesses the internal phonebook to facilitate automated dialing by reducing the required number of keystrokes.
Telephone numbers often need to be updated. People move, change jobs or otherwise change telephone numbers. Businesses likewise change their telephone numbers. Updating contact data record in a telephone directory can be a tedious manual process. The contact data is updated by navigating a directory to access the particular record. The data to be changed is modified by an appropriate predefined combination of alphanumeric keystrokes.
Recent proliferation of telecommunications devices has seen a significant increase for requests for new telephone numbers. It is not uncommon for a single person/entity to have multiple traditional landlines, wireless telephone, pager and/or fax machines, each requiring its own unique telephone number. Such an increase is steadily exhausting the supply of telephone numbers within given area codes. As a result, additional area codes are being allocated.
Mobile phone users are being faced with the task of updating multiple record entries to reflect changes due to additional area codes. This task may be extremely tedious and frustrating. What is needed is a simple, effective and accurate way to update telephone book record entries when necessary.
The present invention is directed to a system and method for receiving downloadable update commands from an external source comprising an input device for accepting the update commands, memory for storing data, the data including variable strings, a processor operably connected to said memory and said input device for processing an update command in order to update a first predetermined variable string with a second predetermined variable string identified by the update command. The embodiment of the invention accepts a Short Message System data packet transmitted from a cell site to a mobile station and updates the contents of an address book located in non-volatile RAM within the mobile station. Upon the occurrence of an event, such as a change in the area code, the system automatically updates the phone book so that a person does not have to perform the tedious task of determining which exchange prefixes within an area code have been affected and then manually updating large numbers of address book entries.
The device may further include an option to operate a local global replacement initiated at the mobile station itself.